


Dangerous Things

by Feeshies



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Found Family, Gen, Saarebas, Sign Language, Silent Sisters (Dragon Age), mute main character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-21
Updated: 2019-09-21
Packaged: 2020-10-25 03:03:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,790
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20717018
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Feeshies/pseuds/Feeshies
Summary: Hali was an interpreter for the Silent Sisters of Orzammar before she was exiled to the surface.  She planned on living her surface life alone and in shame, until she was visited by Sumal, an escaped Qunari Saarebas.





	Dangerous Things

Hali lived out her exile in silence. This didn’t bother here. Part of being an interpreter for Orzammar’s Silent Sisters involved learning to appreciate the quiet. She didn’t expect to find that same level of peace on the surface, but she did find that there was something calming in watching the swirling clouds above her, the only sound coming from the wind whistling through the tall grass. The seemingly infinite sky above her reminded her that there were things bigger than Orzammar - bigger than the shame she brought to the ancestors.

What did bother her was the loneliness. She would wake up in the morning and later go to bed at night without seeing a single face. Sometimes she would turn over in bed and expect to see Sevia beside her, as if they finally got the free life she always dreamed of. The rest of Orzammar knew Sevia as one of the ruthless Silent Sisters. Only Hali knew her as a lovely red-headed woman whose hands always trembled before the Proving matches. Orzammar wouldn’t appreciate the little unique signatures which were present in how Sevia signed to her. No one else in Orzammar knew how funny Sevia was, or how it was even funnier when Sevia couldn’t sign her jokes properly because she was laughing too hard. The people cheering during the Provings couldn’t appreciate how warm Sevia’s brown eyes were, how her eyes would dart around the room whenever she was deep in thought. Orzammar wouldn’t appreciate how Hali’s heart ached at the thought of her.

A selfish part of Hali hoped that Sevia was exiled too - at least that meant she would still be alive. Eventually, Hali stopped praying to the ancestors for Sevia’s safety. She already provoked the ancestors’ shame by attempting to fix the Provings. Being alive in exile was the last kindness they showed her.

* * *

After months of growing accustomed to the silence, the sound of something shuffling inside the house caused Hali to bolt out of bed in a panic. If the ancestors weren’t ignoring her, they were just being downright rude now. She grabbed her crossbow from her bedside table and hurried out of the bedroom.

The pouring rain outside helped to muffle the sound of the scuffed-up floorboards creaking beneath Hali’s feet. She moved steadily, her crossbow out and ready to strike at anything that was out of the ordinary.

Lightning flashed, illuminating the quivering form of a figure draped in a rain-soaked cloak huddled near the front door. One of the intruder’s pale arms was outstretched towards a plate of sweet rolls Hali left out, only to immediately snap back under the cloak.

Hali sagged her shoulders and slowly lowered the crossbow to see how the stranger would react. Fortunately they didn’t seem interested in attacking her.

“Hey,” Hali slowly crept forward as she continued to lower her crossbow. “Caught in the rain, I see? You okay?”

Hali couldn’t see what the stranger looked like beneath the shivering mound of soaked fabric. If the intruder wanted to rob her, there were wealthier targets in the immediate area they could have chosen. It seemed more likely that this person was just looking to get out of the unfortunate weather.

“I can provide you food and shelter if you need it,” Hali kept her distance, carefully monitoring the stranger for any alarming behavior. “But only if you can prove to me that I can trust you. Can you do that?”

The shivering paused, then the figure appeared to nod their head beneath the cloak.

“Okay, glad to see we have an understanding,” Hali fully relaxed her arm which was holding the crossbow. “But it looks like you’re going to freeze to death in that. How about you get rid of that cloak so I can get you a blanket?”

Another moment of hesitation, then the figure stood up. The figure was tall, which Hali learned to expect during her time on the surface, but the stranger stood easily a head taller than most humans she had encountered before. Any feelings of shock Hali experienced from seeing the stranger’s stature were nothing compared to her reaction to seeing them underneath the cloak.

The stranger was female, or at least Hali assumed, with pale gray skin that almost looked blue in the darkness. On the top of her head was a set of twisting jet black horns which shimmered from being coated in rainwater. Her body was painfully skinny and malnourished. Her tangled black hair fell in long inky strands over her face - which was covered by a heavy iron mask.

“Oh, shit,” Hali couldn’t help but mutter under her breath. She had heard tales of the Qunari before, but needless to say she didn’t see a lot of them down in Orzammar. Granted, most of the tales she heard about them ended at “they’re big and they have horns”. Outside of that, Hali’s knowledge about the giants to the north were close to nothing.

The masked Qunari stood there, staring at Hali expectantly.

“Oh, right. The blanket,” Hali rushed to one of the wooden chests pushed to the side of the room and pulled out a thick wool blanket. She held it in her hands for a moment, unsure of how she should approach the stranger.

The Qunari just stood still and watched her from behind the mask.

“So, uh…” Hali took a few steps forward then reached out to place the blanket on the floor between them. “Here you go.”

After the blanket was placed on the floor, Hali stepped backwards to give the Qunari some space,

The Qunari girl slowly shifted her attention from Hali to the blanket. When she reached out for it, Hali could see the thick iron manacles that were fixed around her wrists, each with a segment of broken chains dangling off of them. Hali didn’t get a chance to get a better look at them before the Qunari bundled herself up. The blanket was made for a dwarf, so it barely covered her knees. Still, her shivering seemed to get less intense.

“There, is that better?” Hali spoke as steadily as she could as she inched her way towards the plate of sweet rolls on the counter.

She didn’t answer, but she also didn’t seem threatened by Hali getting closer to her.

“Sweet rolls are good, but they’re not much of a meal. Would you like me to get you something more warm and filling?”

The Qunari girl hesitated, then slowly nodded.

“You’re going to have to take your mask off if you want to eat,” without thinking, Hali reached one hand towards the iron mask.

That was a mistake. The moment Hali reached her hand out, the Qunari girl jumped back, a bright blue light burning behind the eye holes of her mask. She lifted one shackled arm and a cylinder of white hot fire shot out from her palm.

Hali ducked out of the way to avoid the blast, but the flames began crackling throughout the floorboards, filling the cabin with smoke.

“Shit!” Hali rushed away from the Qunari to stomp out the fires before they could spread any further.

When the fires were all extinguished, Hali sighed in relief, only to turn around and find that the Qunari had disappeared. The open door rocking in the stormy winds was the only sign that anyone was once there.

* * *

Hali’s quiet, mundane life in exile resumed as normal. Except for the fact that someone was breaking in and eating her food. Only a few bites would go missing, so she didn’t mind. She began leaving plates of sweet rolls out by the door, and by morning they would all have little nibbles around the edges. As the weeks went on, she learned to cherish the tradition. Just knowing that there was someone else around was enough to break through the loneliness.

A few nights into the routine, the sound of ceramic shattering woke Hali up from her deep sleep. She sprung out of bed and ran to the kitchen, only to see the Qunari girl standing near the door, her hands trembling and the shards of a broken plate scattered at her feet.

“Oh, hey,” Hali tried to keep her voice as level as possible to avoid scaring her off. “You’re back.”

From behind the slits in her iron mask, Hali could vaguely see the girl’s eyes widen and dart down at the broken plate.

“Don’t worry about it,” she held her hands out as she stepped towards the kitchen to grab another plate from the cupboards. “I have another one, see? It’s okay.”

The Qunari girl was still trembling, although Hali couldn’t tell if it was from fear or the cold. She was soaking wet from the rain and her strange armor didn’t seem to be providing much protection from the elements.

“You don’t have to go back out there if you don’t want to,” Hali slowly knelt down so she could start picking up the broken plate. “You can stay here.”

She didn’t respond, but she did stop shaking for a moment.

“But you might want to get that iron off,” she discarded the shards of ceramic into a waste bin. “I imagine it’s not terribly comfortable.”

The Qunari girl hesitated for a long time, before bowing her head and extending her shackles wrists out.

Hali still had some of her old tools from Orzammar, so she was able to get the manacles out with little trouble. The shackles fell to the wood floor with a heavy clunk and the girl rubbed her bruised wrists.

Instead of trying to remove her mask for her, Hali thought it would be best if she learned from her past mistake and let the girl do it herself. Now that her hands were unshackled, she had little trouble removing it. The mask clattered to the floor, and Hali had to resist the urge to gasp.

The Qunari girl’s pale gray eyes were bloodshot and her face was gaunt from malnutrition, but that’s not what Hali noticed first. Across her nearly-blue lips were a row of stitches keeping her mouth shut. It suddenly dawned on Hali why such a physically-imposing individual left such tiny nibbles in her food.

“Oh,” Hali swallowed, trying to keep her voice level. “Do you want me to remove those?”

The girl’s eyes widened as she traced one of her fingers across her stitches. After a moment of hesitation, she nodded.

Hali left for a moment to grab a pair of scissors from her washroom. The entire time, the Qunari girl watched her curiously

“All right,” she took a deep breath. “Then I need you to be still, okay? I promise I won’t hurt you.”

The girl tensed up when Hali approached her with the scissors, but stilled herself when it seemed that her words were sinking in. Hali tried not to look at her terrified expression as she carefully snipped away at the black thread. Even though she tried to avoid getting her skin, she still felt her heart jump whenever the girl flinched. 

At long last, all of the stitches were cut. Hali let the girl remove the actual scraps of thread since she certainly didn’t have the stomach to do it herself.

The girl opened and closed her mouth, seemingly surprised at the new range of motion, as she rubbed the dots of scar tissue where the stitches once were.

“That’s better, right?” Hali set the scissors down on the table. “Can you talk?”

The girl frowned and shook her head. Then she made a cutting motion with one hand while pointing to her open mouth with the other.

“Ah, got it.” Apparently the surface wasn’t all too different from Orzammar, at least when it came to certain tongue-cutting traditions. “But you can hear me?”

The girl nodded.

“Can you sign?”

The girl stared at her.

“Oh,” Hali shrugged. “Maybe it’s just an Orzammar thing.”

The girl continued to stare at her.

“Hello, it’s nice to meet you.” Hali signed, the movements feeling stiff after not having to use them for so long.

The girl tried to parrot the motions, but it was clear that she had no idea what she was saying. When she was done, she stared at Hali expectantly.

“Good, very good,” Hali gave her a thumbs up, which she returned with a grin. “We can start with fingerspelling for now.”

Ancestors, it felt good to have a new project. Hali spent the next hour creating a reference sheet for signing letters, complete with clear (albeit anatomically inaccurate) drawings of hands. The next hour was spent the specific sounds each sign made.

“Okay,” Hali spread the reference sheet out in front of the girl. “I think you’re ready. Do you think you can sign your name to me?”

The girl stared at the diagrams, then nodded enthusiastically.

“Good, let’s see it then.”

She was hesitant at first, but then she held up her fist, her thumb resting over her middle finger.

“S, good. Very good.”

The girl’s eyes scanned the sheet for a moment before she figured out the next letter. She held up her index and middle finger, keeping them close together.

“U,” Hali nodded.

She draped her index, middle, and ring fingers over her thumb.

“M.”

She held her fist up, but with her thumb resting against the side of her index finger.

“A.”

She positioned her thumb and index finger as a right angle.

“L.”

The girl nodded.

“Is that your name?” Hali asked. “Sumal?”

Sumal beamed and nodded.

“Excellent!” Hali signed her name back and pointed at her. “Do you think you can do it faster?”

A look of determination sparked in Sumal’s eyes. Her hand moved to sign her name again. Hali couldn’t tell if the clumsiness of her movements were from lack of experience, or genuine excitement.

“My name is Hali,” Hali pointed at the sheet. “Can you sign it back to me?”

Sumal knit her brow as she combed over the sheet, but it didn’t take long for her to figure it out.

“Hali,” Sumal signed.

“Perfect. You can use this sheet whenever you want to tell me something.”

Sumal smiled and nodded.

“I just have a question,” Hali spoke hesitantly, as she remembered the massive fireball Sumal once launched at her house. “I don’t know much about your people, admittedly, but what happened to you? Your mouth?”

Sumal stared down at the sheet for an awfully long time. Hali couldn’t tell if she was thinking through her response, or trying to avoid answering the question. At long last, her hands forced out the answer, but they were much shakier than they were when she was signing her name.

“Saarebas.”

“Saarebas…” Hali repeated out loud under her breath. “Is that right? I’m sorry, but I don’t know what that means.”

Sumal frowned, then returned her attention to the sheet, her hands working furiously as she forced together an explanation.

“Dangerous thing.”

Hali felt her heart sink in her chest.

“You’re not dangerous, Sumal,” she choked out. “And you’re not a thing.”

Sumal shook her head and kept pointing to herself, while the other hand kept signing the word “thing” over and over until tears fell down her face.

“No, no,” Hali gently placed a hand on Sumal’s trembling shoulder. “You’re not a ‘dangerous thing’, okay? You are Sumal.”

Sumal didn’t respond.

“I want to see you say it.”

Sumal stared down at the floorboards, before signing her name as fast as she could.

“See? You’re getting good at this. Now, I want you to say ‘I am not dangerous’.”

It took a moment for Sumal to study the sheet and piece together the specific signs, but eventually she grasped it.

“I am not dangerous.”

“Now, ‘I am not a thing’.”

“I am not a thing.”

“Now finally, ‘I am Sumal’.”

Her hand stopped, and a small choking sound escaped from her damaged throat. She squeezed her eyes shut and her crying became more intense, but she managed to sign,

“I am Sumal.”

“Perfect,” Hali patted Sumal on the arm, and the Qunari girl collapsed against her in a sobbing heap. Somehow, the dwarven woman managed to avoid yelping as a 7 foot tall horned person almost crushed her. 

“You’re going to be okay,” Hali whispered. “Stay here for as long as you need. I got you.”

She sighed and patted the girl’s head until she dozed off to sleep.

Hali wanted to move her to an actual bed, but that proved to be difficult since she was trapped under a sleeping Qunari. She sighed and let her head fall back against the floorboards.

At least it would no longer be quiet.

**Author's Note:**

> Sumal is one of my main Inquisitors, so I thought I'd write a little piece about how she and her interpreter/mom met.
> 
> Also I used ASL as my reference for the signing sequences, mainly because that's the language I'm slightly more familiar with.


End file.
